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Roaming “Rogue” Planets Have Been Found in Our Galaxy

All planet-sized celestial objects, as far as we know, exist within the orbit of a larger star. That’s the entire basis for our Solar System after all; we orbit around the sun. However, scientists have discovered that not all planets conform to that paradigm. In fact, they have successfully identified two planets that refuse to be tied down.

These two planets were discovered in our own Milky Way galaxy, flying through the cosmos without any kind of external gravity holding them down. One of these planets is between Earth and Neptune in size, while the other is between Jupiter and a brown dwarf. Using a technique known as gravitational microlensing, the team was able to detect the planets passing by by watching for light bending behind them as they passed in front of a star. Based on these findings, these “rogue” planets, presumably ejected from a parent star’s gravitational pull by an unknown force, are actually a common occurrence throughout the Milky Way and beyond.

Fun fact, there was actually a conspiracy scare about a rogue planet named “Nibiru” as far back as 2003. Supposedly, a gigantic red planet was on a collision course with Earth and would utterly annihilate us. And then it didn’t. And then it didn’t like, four more times. Nibiru has been completely debunked by the astronomy community, noting that if there was a giant planet hurtling toward us, we would see it literally years before the fact.

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